Go Mo'

Living up to all my mo-mittments this month (was that bad? Yeah, it was bad). As I mentioned earlier, the mo-cake I wanted to make for Emily has finally made an appearance. I am really bad at drawing the right-side of a moustache. Mine are never symmetrical! Plus, I realised I had made it too big, and if I made the right side as long as the left, it wouldn't be in the centre.

redbeanpork linked me a video on how to make a matcha mille crêpe cake (text version can be found here: https://www.justonecookbook.com/matcha-mille-crepe-cake/). I used Nami's recipe for anpan, and her recipes are incredibly easy to follow as she has pictures for all the steps, and lots of handy tips. The matcha mille crêpe cake was also really straightforward, though it does seem intimidating.

I did a practice one first:

And realised that cooking the crêpes like I normally cook them results in a brown colour on the crêpes, and the matcha flavour isn't as strong. I probably should have read the recipe properly, instead of skipping past the instructions on cooking the crêpes thinking I already knew how to make them. I found that when I cooked them over a lower heat for a longer time, they retained that strong green colour, and the matcha flavour wasn't overpowered by the browning process.

The other mistake I made was adding far too much cream between layers in my first attempt:

When I found I'd gotten through all the cream and had to start dipping into the cream for the "real" cake, I realised I'd used too much. Plus, I ran out of cream in the end, and could only write "Go" and draw a moustache. I had planned on drawing little moustaches around the edges, similar to how you'd add little rosettes around the border. You don't want the layer of cream to be thicker than your crêpes! MrFodder said that the flavour of the cream was overpowering, but if he removed the top few layers (where there was the most cream), the cake was really nice. I didn't have enough matcha powder leftover to dust the top, so mine doesn't look nearly as pretty as Nami's, but everyone who had a slice loved it.

Emily said to me afterwards:

I love working with you, Fodder, you are a ray of sunshine and mischief that brightens the world.

One of the nicest things someone has said to me! Of course, we both had fun with the moustache thing. I had a look and she really doesn't have a moustache. A lot of people on the team asked what the occasion was for the cake, and we both remained tight-lipped. I think she likes having an air of mystery about her. We were both wondering whether you could make this recipe with black tea. I don't know how good the combination of whipped cream and black tea would be, and I guess there's only one way to find out. MrFodder wants to try one with custard instead of cream.

Personally, I just like the flavour of the matcha crêpes, and I'm not normally a fan of matcha.